A Carrier's Tale
by Raptorsnribbons
Summary: The infection struck leaving few, if any, survivors. Of the infected there are Asymptomatic Carriers, people who have been infected yet are definitely not vampires. I am one of them. Having heard of Robert Neville, I hope not to face the same fate.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1: December 1978**

Chapter One

The disease struck. Everyone knows about that. It was the kind of thing that doesn't leave survivors – 'specially since all those who were infected tried to kill just about everybody who wasn't. I like to hope there are others out there- the uninfected, that is, but doubts run high as chances grow slim. Even if I found one of the uninfected, I'm not even sure what I'd do. I'm one of those unfortunate souls trapped in a gray area- caught half way between vampire and human.

The technical term for what I am, is an "Asymptomatic Carrier": infected but you'd never know that, I don't crave blood, I like garlic, and will never remove the crucifix hanging from my neck. What that means for me: everybody wants to kill me (oh, joy).

They'll begin searching again in a few moments. They come out as soon as the sun disappears from the horizon. The sky was still light. I could wait. This time, they'd find me- I'd allow that. Tonight was a game.

After doing this for so long, sometimes you've got to have a little fun with it. If I didn't, I'd go crazy – and that's a fact. Swinging my legs as I sat on a pew where my feet couldn't quite touch the ground was something I hadn't done in sometime. Not since Christmas mass before the infection broke out. I hummed myself a Christmas carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"- an old favorite that I never could remember all the words to. It must have been around that season anyway.

When I got to the part about the seventh day of Christmas, that's when the banging on the doors started. I gave a cynical grin and shouted, "Keep trying all you want, heck, I'll even open the doors to you!"

One responded with a low growl and the pounding continued. I kept true to my promise pulling both doors open to see my angry brethren. Four of them were out there, grumbling and growling, all dead and wanting nothing more than blood. Their skin had reached new shades of pale since I last saw them, turning from "Wonder-bread" to "picked-clean bone". Decay disgusted me.

They reached and grabbed for me, yet never did one toe of their cross the threshold. Vampires don't take much of a liking to churches, it's like one of their Commandments: "Thou shall not pass through a holy threshold". (I don't really know the real reason…) Therefore churches make great places to crash for a night or two.

The four outside came yesterday too. Yesterday, they were real chatty, calling me just about any name you can think of. I assume it was some ill-thought out method to get me to go outside that to their surprise, did not work. New technique today- growling, you can guess how that's treatin' them.

I giggled at their frustration.

All the sudden there was another sound- this one wasn't so promising. The tiles on the floor began to rumble, groaning, and distorting.

I stopped giggling. "Shit!"

I started running, grabbed my knapsack, and the dish of holy water by the door. I glanced over my shoulder. I knew it! They'd gotten into the catacombs and were forcing their way up. A tile had already been pushed aside and the vampire was working to get up.

Now was the time where the panic started setting in. What to do? What to do?

I took the dish of holy water and threw at the ones guarding the door. Holy Water served as a good repellant, it didn't kill them, but must have hurt like hell.

I ran like mad.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Scrambling down staircases and over sidewalk was by no means new to me. The dead ones come after just about anything that moves- especially the living, infected or not. To them I looked about as appetizing as apple pie, I've heard them say they prefer uninfected blood- 'else it might be kinda like cannibalism – vampires attacking vampires.

I could outrun them. Those who were on pursuit now were still recovering from the holy water I threw at them. The rest were only just now trying to figure out how to get out of the church. Going through the door was not possible so they had to go back the way they came in – all the better for me. My sneakers pounded against the pavement.

Have to hide, have to hide, my mind raced. There was a fire escape on the building on the corner. That was where I had meant to hide tomorrow- guess that wouldn't be happening.

I rushed up the fire escape and under the second floor window. I had left it open covering the entrance with holy water. I slammed the window shut behind me.

I watched them search in the streets below. They growled and snarled at each other- they couldn't help their brains were rotting, they roamed thoughtlessly with their target out of sight and soon enough out of mind.

Now I'd best introduce myself. You've learned enough about me- but not really. Tonight was a busy night- a normal night, for recent time's standards. Any night where I end up running for my life is relatively normal- not a comfortable norm though I might add. I've been bitten more time than I can count- the stupid ones keep forgetting- you don't like the way I taste! It must be like biting into a piece of apple pie only to find the apples are all rotten. They spit and hiss but just come back for more. I despise them- and I can assume the feeling must be mutual.

I call myself "Lux", L-U-X, and don't forget it. I won't answer to anything else and for all those who ask: it is not my real name. When someone finally decides to make a cure for the infection, I'll likely go back to my real name. Perhaps things will change someday and I won't have to run, or then again, perhaps not.

I stopped believing that things would change the same year I gave up on Santa Claus. I'm getting' old, I sighed.

One of them spotted me looking out the window around three-ish, only four hours before the sun would rise. They swarmed the building as best they could- there weren't too many of them- I'd been in this scenario with more before. I grimaced- what a mess I'd have to deal with tomorrow morning.

They squawked and screeched trying to get into the building. I couldn't get in this building and I spent hours yesterday pulling at the boarded up windows, the long-ago locked door, and just about every entrance I could find. I found a little luck with this window on the second floor- and only this window, which I fixed up nicely enough. I gave this building my seal of approval and a great safety rating.

I felt confident, bordering on cocky. It had been a long night so I searched the room until I found a somewhat comfortable spot to curl up and get a few quick hours of shut-eye. Before collapsing from near exhaustion, I got down on my knees, thanked God I actually survived those last few hours, and then was out like a light. I'd sleep 'til eight, no later- I couldn't afford any later.

Eight rolled around- the sun had already been up for an hour. That meant I only had nine hours 'til the next attack.

Gosh, I hate December.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I woke up the next morning, with some delight that I could do just that. Waking up after a night like that- I'm just glad it's over. Now for today's work. A twisted corpse lay mangled on the fire escape in its comatose-sleep with one claw still working at my window. I removed the board blocking the window and pushed its cold, dead hand away. I groaned at the sight of the fire escape.

There were three of them sleeping on the fire escape. I stepped the first two and kicked the last one with a sudden burst of frustration. Unfortunately, I don't think that kicking it did anything, kicking a vampire's a lot like kicking a boulder. They may have only been asleep but I don't have to worry about them waking during the day.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Night came quicker than expected. I'd decided on spending the night in the catacombs beneath a chapel- I know what you're thinking, dead vampires are trying to kill you yet you still decide to spend the night among a whole bunch of other dead guys. The truth is that fortunately for me, these guys down here don't put up much of an argument, city laws made it illegal to bury people down in basements like this, not sanitary, I guess. Fortunately for me, that means I have a night with company and not the vampires. I lit a match to light a little candle to see, then leaned against the stone wall, tried making myself as comfortable as possible before whipping out a great, big, bag of salt-water taffies, lucky for me these things stay good for an awfully long time. I'd snagged these at the last gas station I saw- I know a gas station is also probably not the best place to buy anything eatable but it's not like there's anyone around to restock the grocery stores, food picked up at the gas station keeps sounding better and better. I tore the bag open, glanced around the room.

"Taffy, anyone?" I asked in my solitude. The skeletons said nothing with their skulls staring back at me blankly.

"Guess not…" I answered myself, "All the better then, more for me!" I imagined the skulls watching enviously.

"Well, you missed out! I offered and you didn't say anything so it's mine now- too bad for you," I told the envious skeleton. The other skeleton snickered.

"Yeah, I know, right?" I grinned too. "You actually have an excuse for why you don't like taffy, right?" I, with a mouth glued with taffy, asked the snickering skeleton. "You're a diabetic, gotta watch them sugars!" I laughed.

My laughing died out leaving me in silence and the dark with nothing more than a candle light. I tried to take a deep breath. Before I knew what happened, tears were streaming across my face. I sobbed silently unable to help myself.

I began praying, simple prayers over and over again until I no longer remembered the meanings of the words I repeated time and time again. Something tells me the loneliness hurts more than just about anything else I've been faced with. Bites are bearable along with scars and punctures, but loneliness sticks to the soul, beating your spirits like a punching bag, striking where you're at your weakest.

How long had I been alone? Too long. My family is all gone by now, friends disappeared even before that. There are no survivors, just more vampires, and then in the midst of all this, there is that one group caught in the gray area, that one lonely group with a total population of one. How miserable.

I stashed my salt-water taffy away in my knapsack figuring I'd save it for later when I actually do have an appetite again. It was getting late. With my hiding spot secure, I rested my head on my knapsack and dabbed my throat with holy water like it was fine Chanel perfume. They way it worked, it just may have well been.

I didn't say goodnight to my acquaintances simply because they were dead. I couldn't let myself sink that low that I'd have to make up my own imaginary buddies just to get through the night to cope with the solitude. They were dead, all I could do was pray I wouldn't be joining them anytime soon. I said another quick prayer and let myself doze off.

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	5. Chapter 5

I shouldn't have returned to those catacombs again- I've told myself over and over again, there is no reason to spend more than one night in any one place. I'd thought it was safe- it had been, right? I think my skeletal buddies would have agreed.

I sat in the dark holding a lit candle. The room seemed particularly eerie. My gut feeling was to run. The vampires would be outside by now, running was not much of an option. I thought of getting some sleep but refused to close my eyes.

"You awake?" I asked the diabetic skeleton. "Good, I can't sleep either.

"Can you hear them?"

I imagined, _Well, sure. _

"I don't but I know they're there."

_Why? _The candle light played upon its skull.

"Why? …They always are."

_And in here too?_ I imagined my buddy saying.

"…Perhaps… I'd certainly hope not. I don't think so."

_I think so. _

"You do?" I didn't like this friend very much.

With that, the skeleton rose to its boney feet.

I jumped, backing away against the wall. I could see the skeleton grin showing two pointed fangs- perhaps this one hadn't been dead for as long as I'd thought. There was no way out now. Apparently, I hadn't been imagining things.

It came at me as quickly as it could- fortunately that was not that quick. I threw a punch at it as a last-ditch effort, knocking out a couple of lose rib bones.

I braced myself for the worst. Then it came- icy teeth and fangs, out for blood. As quickly as it came, the skeleton drew back.

Did I really taste that bad? I probably did. There was my chance to run so I took it, sprinting out into the streets.

My arm was bleeding from that nasty bite, just enough to attract every other monster roaming the town at that hour. Lucky me.


End file.
